


From the Flames

by Craorach



Series: Vengence of Arboria [1]
Category: WildStar (Video Game)
Genre: Aurin, Exile
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-29
Updated: 2014-06-29
Packaged: 2018-02-06 16:57:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1865445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Craorach/pseuds/Craorach
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of a near feral Aurin, forced to deal with civilization and other races and control his urges to hunt and kill.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. From the Flames

The trees were screaming, their pain was making every step agony for all those around him, his friends and family staggering through the flames towards the waiting evacuation ships. For the first time, the feral Aurin, who would one day take the name “Rex”, felt himself fortunate to have more of a connection to the sharp spined bushes than the great trees of their home world… the Dominion flame troopers were concentrating on the great trees that would have the most impact on his people’s minds.

Despite his carefully cultivated air of savagery, even he was unable to ignore the fact he was stepping over the charred corpses of Aurin who had succumbed to first wave of enemies. He paused, as he took a step between two stumps and heard the tell-tale crack of bone beneath his feet… what he had first taken to be charcoaled wood was in fact one of his own people, twisted into an unrecognisable shape by pain and fire. It took a moment for him to resist the urge to look down, and then he moved on, towards the promised “safety” that would see them leave their home world forever. 

A shape stumbled from the trees to his right as he ran towards the beacon, his first reaction was to bare his claws and sharp teeth, lashing out.. and he heard a yelp in return a cowering girl, clutching a smaller child to her, and a rag tag group of other “civilised” Aurin standing behind her. The snarl died on his lips, but he only responded to their pleas for assistance with a growled “Follow” and kept running.

Looking back, he would wonder that such a coincidence, a brief flawed moment of compassion beyond his usual predatory behaviour, would have such a profound effect on his life. But there, amidst the flames and death, it had simply been instinct. As he ran, he almost fooled himself that it was a callous act.

“I don’t need to run faster than the Dominion, only faster than these bluntclaws.”

The first Dominion troops they ran headlong into put paid to that idea.. Ducking past them, he would have had no trouble alone… but hearing the screams of those behind him, he did the unthinkable, he turned. 

The Dominion troops, mostly those hateful beasts called “Chua” wielding their insane flame cannons, had opened with their flame cannons and rifles only moments after spotting the group of terrified Aurin. Before the refugees had even time to stop running, the edges of their group were swamped in liquid flame. The lucky ones, the ones hit directly, were incinerated, falling as piles of cooked flesh and bone. The flames washed onwards, over the heads of children who screamed as their delicate ears and hair were burned from the scalps, and into the lungs of their screaming parents, dying as their internal organs were turned to flame.

Those few who maintained their faculties amongst the slaughter fell upon the Chua in a desperate frenzy. Enough to make even the feral Aurin pause in shock, then he fell on their attackers himself, choosing their obvious leader as the focus of his attack. A human, a “Cassian” as their so-called rescuers insisted on defining the non-Exile humans. Watching the slaughter from a short distance and picking of stragglers with a cruel set of claws. He was laughing, laughing at the pain of Arboria, and the suffering of the Aurin… he stopped laughing quickly, as fingers ending in pinpoint claws dug through his throat from behind, grasped his windpipe, and with a sharp tug tore it out, a scream for help dying on his blooded lips.

The claws on the dying human’s hands caught his attention, and as he heard the screaming swirl of combat around him, he paused, and wrenched them from the death grip. Long, curved, and fitting awkwardly in his smaller hands, the energy crackling along their length when he tightened his fists made him smile.. These beasts would pay. 

It went surprisingly quickly. His first target, a Chua standing over the girl and child he had seen before, cackling as he cooked them, fell without so much of a blink, its stomach torn open and spilled on the ground… the others began to react as they heard its screams, but the claws were sharp and the Aurin fast. It took only moments for the Aurin and the handful of survivors to take advantage of the creature’s surprise, and leave their corpses to feed the ground below. 

He stood over the youngest of the dead, the children had gathered together in a huddle in fear, but the Chua had had little to no mercy… he saw a few squirming, not quite dead, and reached down with the energised blades to end their suffering. The first few went to the rest peacefully, but then he was stopped, a small hand reaching out from the smouldering pile and grasping his wrist. 

He pulled, the claws crackling dangerously close to the small child’s head, as he pulled her free of the remains of her friends and family. Flesh tore and bones cracked as he pulled her up, and clutched her to his chest, the shock silencing her as the group started again towards the promise of safety. 

The small group burst into the clearing, and paused only for a moment as the massive rock men levelled weapons at them… medics and soldiery of all shapes and sizes running past to take the wounded, one attempting to pry the girl from his body, but she resisted despite her injuries, and he let her stay there despite himself, walking towards the escape shuttles as his body drained of it’s energy. 

Staggering through the camp, he was directed to shuttle, given water and a blanket, and led up the ramp, a guard with a clipboard looked him over.

“Name?”

The Aurin blinked, confused as he glanced at the girl still clinging to him “Don’t know, girl, the human asked you a question.”

“Your name then?”

“I don’t… “ he paused, and looked down at the blades on his arms Alpharic Industries, Rex Blades “…Rex?”

The guard noted it down, and Rex stepped into the cold metal darkness, the doors closing behind them. His eyes adjusted slowly as the buzzing electrical lights started into life, looking around at the terrified Aurin as he settled himself in a corner, and stared at the white hair of the girl who would still not release him, both settling into an exhausted slumber as they left their world behind.


	2. Darkness of the Void

The stillness when he awoke was an illusion; he could smell the fear and sorrow all around him. He could hear the occasional sob, but most of all there was the sensation of loss. Even he could feel it, a shadow over his soul, an ache of loss that he had never felt before. Unlike those around him, however, if anything it made him feel a strange sense of calm. 

Rex knew all to well that those Aurin crowded around him would be the more civilised ones. Most of his own, feral, people would have been lost to the flames, or their own fury. These Aurin were those who lived amongst the trees, whose connection to them and the queen were greatest, and so those who mourned the greatest the destruction they left behind. 

He started to stand. The smoke stained child in his arms still slept, so he carefully put her to one side, subconsciously wrapping her in the blanket he had been given. He saw the haunted eyes of those around watching him carefully, but instead of watching him with the distrust they would normally have of a Wildling, their focus was on the blades, enemy blood still to their depowered edges.

He started to pick his way through the cargo hold, filled as it was with huddling forms, and towards the corridor that led to the rest of the ship. Unlike the warm earth of his home, the cold metal under his paws made him shudder with each step, his claws clicking with each step. 

A pair of human guards stopped him at the door, rifles held lax, glancing at the weapons he carried. 

“They’ll have to stay behind, Sir.”

A growl built almost instantly in his throat “we’re prisoners then?” and his grip tightened on the handles of the claws, energy starting to charge in the blades.

“No, Sir, but we have been advised the trauma of what has happened could cause unexpected results”

The standoff lasted only a few moments, before he relented for some reason he couldn’t quite decide, placing his new weapons on a table with others to one side, the guard nodding appreciatively and placing a tag on them after asking his name.

“Rex”

“Well, Rex, you’re a scrapper I can see… these are from an officer… once we reach the flagship you’d be best to speak with the Commander, we need good men.”

“I’m no man, those are for when we return home, where is meat?”

The Aurin nodded lightly, and stepped down the corridors towards the smell of food, passing medical staff operating on Aurin and Exiles alike… Mordesh, for the most part, it was all he could do not to assume the worst of the sickly looking medics and leave them bleeding.. but he controlled his instincts and continued, stepping into a crowded mess hall.

Food, at least there is something that is not different, even in this cold metal box adrift in the void. People of all shapes and sizes, as much as he struggled to think of them as people, gathered together and eating after their struggles. The lack of his own people was not surprising, they would all be in the hold with the exception of a few here and there who had joined the Exile ships when they first passed through. The majority of this ship seemed to be made of humans, alike the Cassian’s enough to make his tail twitch, but he kept his temper better than he would expect as he joined the line for food, following their lead in taking a tray and being dished out simple fare.


End file.
